Subj : Wannbe HAM
To   : JIMMY ANDERSON
From : Bob Seaborn
Date : Thu Sep 15 2016 07:59 pm

 >-=> Bob Seaborn wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-
 >
 >> Well, my wife and I are interested in the weather side of things for
 >> HAM,
 >> but I'm also interested in the CHAT side. :-) If CB's would give me
 >> morechance for CHAT it would be worth it. If it didn't, though, I feel
 >> like
 >> it would be a waste. :-)
 >
 >
 >BS> Get connected with D-STAR, there are numerous nets almost every day who
 >BS> are chat oriented.
 >
 > Yeah - Daryl mentioned that to me - pretty expensive though, right?
 > Pluswouldn't help me for chatting during a drive. :-)


     No, not at all.  I understand that the Icom ID-51A is on sale right now
for about $250 at some places in the US. If you are within range of a repeater, 
no problem.  If not, a mobile hot spot is all it takes, using wifi from your 
cell smartphone.

      My Home setup here consists of an Icom ID-31A (cost me $200 cdn 18
months ago), coupled with a DVMega interface, which is a Raspberry Pi 2, with a 
small sub board added to it.  Everything sits in the Pi case, and has a four 
inch antenna sticking out the top.  It sits on the corner of my desk, and I get 
around 2 miles range out of it (TX power is approx 10 mw on 440MHz). Total cost 
of this was well under $200, also.  The big feature is that I have world wide 
qso's, with NO outside antennae, and don't use any repeater. Especially nice 
considering the state of HF these days.  :)  I regularly chat with hams in 
Ohio, North Carolina, Ontario, the UK, Australia, etc.

      My mobile is a 50 watt Icom ID-2820H, into a Larsen 2/70 maganatopper
antenna.

      If you wish, send me your email address, and I can send you pictures.
I can be found at "bob at fidonet.ca".  If anyone reading this cares, I usually 
can be found on X-Reflector 005B.






                       .....Bob, VE5XEF


--- GEcho/32 & IM 2.50
 * Origin: DE VE5XEF (1:140/12)

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